Lautenberg to have chemotherapy

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) has been diagnosed with B-cell lymphoma of the stomach, which will require six to eight chemotherapy treatments, his office announced Friday afternoon.

He had been admitted to the hospital earlier this week after fainting in his New Jersey home. Initially, doctors diagnosed a bleeding ulcer.

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But a Friday news release from his office now say he has “a curable tumor,” which “will require treatment over the next few months.”

Lautenberg is being treated by two doctors from Mount Sinai Medical Center.

"We expect a full and complete recovery for Sen. Lautenberg,” one of the doctors, James F. Holland, said in a statement. “The senator will be treated with chemotherapy administered approximately every three weeks. We anticipate that he will receive between six and eight treatments, and in between treatments, the senator is expected to be back at work in the Senate.”

Lautenberg spokesman Caley Gray told POLITICO that Lautenberg will not be able to return to Washington in time for a critical procedural vote on the jobs bill, scheduled for Monday. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has been struggling to get a 60th vote to push his $15 billion package, and Lautenberg’s absence will now require at least two Republicans votes to bring the bill to the floor on the timetable the Democrats have outlined.

According to the American Cancer Society, B-cell lymphomas constitute about 85 percent of non-Hodgkin lymphomas.

“This is a fast-growing lymphoma, but it often responds well to treatment with chemotherapy,” the cancer society website says.

In fact, about 75 percent of people with the kind of lymphoma the senator has won’t show signs of the disease after initial treatment. About half are cured with therapy for this type of lymphoma.